Back
by Lau Ackerman
Summary: Akane deals with the feelings that Kougami's comeback awakens in her.


**Just a little something that has been on my mind ever since the new season of Psycho-Pass began. Please forgive any mistakes, take into account that English is not my first language. I hope it's good enough to make you have a nice time reading it.**

Akane let her bag fall with a loud thump. She left it there, on the floor, while she strode into the room. She didn't look to see if her companion had followed her, she didn't care. She located a tray with various drinks on it and walked towards it. God knew she needed something strong in that moment.

She poured herself a glass of what she thought was the strongest of the liquids that were displayed in front of her, something that smelled like whiskey, and downed it quickly. It burnt her throat a little, but she welcomed it. She really needed it now.

She refilled her glass, only this time she took her time savoring the content. She went sit on the gray couch in the center of the room. It was a little worn out but still comfortable enough. She fixed her stare right in front of her, not really looking at the sight before her –a rather large and seemingly cozy bed and a bedside table with a plain lamp on it. She was too busy trying to control the turmoil of emotions boiling inside of her to pay any attention to her surroundings.

She took another gulp from her glass and thought about the events of the last two days, which had led her to her current situation.

It had all started with what had seemed a simple enough case, but then their investigation had taken a turn and Frederica Hanashiro, that blonde woman from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had made her entrance. Akane wasn't as opposed to her presence as Shimotsuki was –the other detective absolutely despised her– but just because she was capable of being civilized it didn't mean she was happy with welcoming a stranger in the little tight group that was Division 1 without a second thought, especially when she knew for a fact that she was trying to steal away her two most capable enforcers –and dear friends.

But the investigation at hand had required the help of Foreign Affairs and there was nothing that she could do about it, except for collaborating with her colleague in the best way she could and making sure that her team did the same and behaved properly.

And it was in the middle of that collaboration when _the problem_ had presented itself. When Frederica had told her that she had a special agent on the field ready to help them when needed, she hadn't suspected in the least that she would find herself in this situation.

She couldn't believe her eyes when said agent had presented himself in front of her, when the mission had taken a dangerous turn and she had ended up alone and without the possibility of calling out for the help of her team. He had appeared out of nowhere and rescued her from the criminals that had cornered her. She had felt ashamed at her own arrogance, already preparing an apology and a thank you for her savior, who had just gone into a lot of trouble to save her because she had wrongly considered that the risk wasn't high enough.

But then he revealed himself and all her good intentions where gone out the window. A number of emotions went through her at lightning speed, only to settle on sheer anger at the man before her. They had had to get out of there quickly to a more secure location, so she'd had to bite her tongue for the time being. And that's how they ended up in a hotel room, where they should decide what to do next or ask for directions from the office.

Akane looked over at where Kougami was, still close to the door, talking to, presumably, Frederica. She watched how he ended the call and walked towards her, raising an eyebrow at her drink. She didn't say a word, hoping her ice stare was enough to convey everything that she hadn't been able to say in their way to their current location.

"I guess we're stuck here for the night. Frederica says to stay put until they have more information about what went wrong", he informed her, unfazed by her coldness. "Although I told her that the boldness of our favorite detective here had a lot to do with it".

She kept taking sips from her drink, ignoring the pun. She knew she had been reckless, but she would be damned if she was going to admit any mistakes in front of him, however childish it might seem.

"Seriously, Tsunemori, what the hell were you thinking," he continued "going in like that with no assistance of any kind?"

This time it was a little harder to bite her tongue. That was rich coming from him, giving her lectures about doing crazy things.

"You know you're gonna have to talk to me eventually, right?"

Akane downed the last of her drink and stood up to go for a refill.

Kougami just sighed at her lack of response and took a sit on the other side of the couch. Akane soon noticed the familiar scent of his cigarettes and she had to grip her glass tighter not to let her control slip.

She could feel his eyes on her as she walked back to the couch and sat on the opposite side of it. There was a wide distance between them, but it had nothing to do with how far away they were physically.

"Why? How?"

In the end, she couldn't resist it. She had to know.

"You're going to have to be more specific."

"How did you come back? And why?" She was growing more desperate by the minute, but she tried her best to keep her cool.

"Frederica came to me and made an offer. I wasn't going to accept, but then I needed assistance with something and she provided it, so I couldn't say no to her."

Akane knew him enough to know that she wasn't going to get a lot more out of him. She turned a little so she could look at him better. He was already facing her direction.

"So you decide to come back when a stranger tells you to, but you couldn't do it when it was us who were asking."

The words slipped without her being able to retain them, and she regretted it almost immediately, for they showed more of how she felt than she wanted to admit. Regardless, she didn't avert her eyes from his. She wanted to know his answer.

"She offered me a job, you offered me a trial from Sibyl, one I suspect wouldn't have been very fair, despite your best intentions."

She set her glass on the small crystal table next to the couch a little more forcefully than she intended, startling them both. The anger she had been trying to control since their encounter in the alley finally erupted to the surface. She couldn't believe what he had just said.

"Oh, so you're saying that you only came back because you knew you wouldn't be punished for your actions? And here I thought you were acting out of some sort of noble impulse", came her bitter and angry response.

"So you would've turned yourself in without a second thought."

"Don't try to turn this around on me. I'm not the one who abandoned her friends, flew from them another time when they tried to reach for me and then had the audacity to come back and act like everything is alright in the world."

At this point, Akane had stood up from her place on the couch and was facing him, indignation clear in her features, tears threating to fall from her eyes. Her agitation had to be palpable for him, since he was looking at her with worry. She hated that. She didn't want him to show concern for her, not now. In that moment she wanted to be mad at him, and being reminded of the kind nature of his soul, the very thing that drew her to him, wasn't going to help her with that.

There was something else in his eyes, though. The part of her brain that was still struggling to work properly and not clouded by her rage or the effect his presence had on her registered it as curiosity.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that you're angrier at me for not coming back when _you_ asked me to than for whatever my reasons are." He said that while standing and she had to look up not to lose the eye contact. She was reminded of how big he was compared to her, but far from making her feel uncomfortable, she felt safe and at ease, as it had always been with them.

She paled at his words, because he was partly right. She didn't like that he could still read her like an open book.

"You don't get to be cocky right now." She retorted, trying to save some face. "I just think that is a little opportunist of you to take her offer, if not directly hypocritical."

"Again, what should I have done? Turn myself in for nothing, knowing what Sibyl's verdict would be? You would've been happy with that, with my execution?"

"You don't know if that would've been the outcome!"

"Yes I do!"

They were yelling at each other at that point. They had also gotten closer together, without even realizing it in the middle of their argument. Akane stood as straight as she could, even when she wanted to take a step back. Again, in a somewhat childish manner, she didn't want to waver in front of him.

She reprimanded herself mentally for having stepped in the conversation in the first place and not having stuck to her original plan of not saying a word to him. Now she knew she wouldn't be able to stop.

"What are you saying then, Kougami? Do you think I wanted to take you to your death? Do you really think that's what I wanted?"

"That's not what I'm saying." He responded to her more calmly, in the face of her restlessness. "I just want to know what you wanted me to do. To reject Frederica's offer, maybe? To not come back at all?"

That last question did it for her. She turned around when she felt the familiar burning of tears behind her eyes and took a couple steps around the room. This is what she hadn't wanted to happen, to break in front of him. But she couldn't hold it anymore.

"You know that's not true", she told him with a sob. "You know I wanted you to come back, and that's why I went to Shambala. I just wanted to do things the right way."

"Because I didn't."

"You'll agree with me that you didn't make things exactly easy."

"Never said I did." She had her back to him, but she felt him get closer, could feel his body heat.

"I'm sorry I couldn't offer you a better deal, like Frederica did."

"You made a good offer back in the day, it was me who decided not to take it."

In her agitated state, Akane had to take a moment to realize what he was talking about. Then it dawned on her. He was referring to her deal with Sibyl, the one she had made before he had shot Makishima in order to save him from committing that crime.

She turned around slowly, to find him right where she had expected, right behind her, with his hands in his pockets. She looked him in the eye, with a teary gaze.

"I'm glad you're back," she whispered. "And I'm glad you're not behind bars."

"So you're saying that you prefer this arrangement?" He was half smiling at her, with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Don't push it."

She was now smiling too. She wiped away the few tears she had almost shed and looked at him again, with the intention of returning to business.

"So. What are we supposed to do now?"

"Didn't you hear me before?" She blushed at his question. She had been too preoccupied with not talking to him, so she hadn't been paying attention. "We're gonna have to stay here and wait orders. Of course, you're your own boss, you can always tell my boss that you didn't want to follow her directions and be stuck in a crappy hotel with me for the night."

"It doesn't seem unreasonable, there's no need for me to disagree with her."

"Well, then," he said, taking a step back and looking around the room "I think I'm going to freshen up a little and then I'll take the couch."

Akane couldn't say anything to him because he left for the bathroom almost immediately after saying that. Once alone, her eyes went to the enormous bed in the center of the room and she thought, absent-mindedly, that there was enough room in it for the both of them.

She felt her blush deepen when she realized what she was thinking and shook her head, trying to get those ideas out of her brain. The last thing she needed was to let her imagination wonder down _that_ path that night. She even slapped herself gently and that was how Kougami found her when he got out of the bathroom wiping his face with a towel –with one hand on each side of her face, a deep blush and her eyes wide open.

"Are you ok?" He asked her. She could see that he was curious, but mostly he was trying hard not to laugh at her.

"I– Yeah, I'm fine, I just– I need to go to the bathroom too."

She then slipped away hurriedly, before he could say anything else. The first thing she did was to splash some water on her face to try to regain her cool. She looked at her reflection and scolded herself mentally.

_Get a hold of yourself, damn it. You're not a fifteen year-old girl with a crush on her classmate. _

But she knew that wasn't exactly like that. She wasn't a teenager, true. She was an adult woman. And she didn't have a crush, either. But that was the problem, because in that moment, with her anger gone, her feelings were clearer than ever and _god_, would she rather feel just an innocent crush. It would make the whole situation a lot easier.

She had spent over five years ignoring her feelings, at first because he was an enforcer under her orders, then because he was a fugitive and she had almost no hope of ever seeing him again. When they had found each other again in Shambala, the situation wasn't really ideal to sort out their relationship, apart from the fact that she was set on bringing him back to Japan.

And now he was back, he wasn't her enforcer anymore and _they were stuck in a goddamned hotel room for a whole night_. In what moment had she stepped into a cheap romance novel, she had no idea.

She then realized that she had spent too much time in the bathroom and that Kougami was probably wondering if she was ok, so she walked back into the room as composed as she could. She found him lounging on the couch with one of his worn-out novels.

Akane noticed that the piece of furniture was way too small for his large frame. If he was sleeping in there, he wasn't going to be comfortable. She sighted before making her proposal, making sure that her tone didn't betray her agitation.

"Maybe I should take the couch. You don't seem to fit in that tiny thing."

"I've slept in worse places," he responded calmly, without taking his eyes from his book. "And you need to sleep on a mattress, you took a good beating before."

She flinched a little at his words. She hadn't even thought about the few bruises that she had got from the fight in the alley. They weren't too serious and she had been so distracted that she hadn't felt any pain. Now that he mentioned them and with her own adrenaline coming down, she did feel tired and sore.

"You can't feel much better than me, though."

"What do you want, to share the bed? Because there's no other solution." He said that nonchalantly, but Akane went back to her previous state of juvenile nervousness. "You're the one in the worst state, so you take the more comfortable place."

Akane would never know why she pronounced her next words.

"The bed is big enough for both of us, we shouldn't even notice the other all night."

At that, he did put his book down. The weight of his gaze made her feel very small all of a sudden. The deep blue of his eyes turned almost navy while watching her. She felt like a pray being observed by its predator. She had forgotten about this side of him, about his predatory nature.

Kougami's next move was very slow, it felt almost calculated. He got up from the couch and went to the side of the bed. He moved away the bed sheets and sat down on the bed, waiting for her to take the next step.

Akane took a deep breath and walked to the other side of the bed to mimic his actions. She got under the sheets, a little uncomfortable in her skirt, but she figured that if she took it off and was left with only her t-shirt and panties things would be ten times more awkward than they already were. He must have been thinking the same, because he didn't take off his cargo pants either.

They stayed quiet and unmoving for a while, both of them lying on their backs, looking at the ceiling. Akane felt how her nervousness slowly went away. To have Kougami's calmed breathing next to her was quite soothing and slumber was slowly taking over her bruised body.

"Goodnight, Akane."

She fell asleep with the smooth sound of his voice pronouncing her own name.


End file.
